Bob Frantz: Where's your Cleveland pride?

To the small-but-vocal group of shameless, weak-willed, self-loathing Cavaliers fans that spent some $50,000 on billboards and T-shirts as part of the “Come Home LeBron” campaign before and during the Cavs’ game with Miami on Wednesday night, I have one question for you:
Where’s your pride, man?
It’s a serious inquiry.
I want to know exactly how you can be so disgusted with yourself, your city and your team you would lower yourself to begging the most despicable traitor in Cleveland history to come back and rip your heart out all over again.
Honestly, where’s your self-respect?
What, would you also watch your wife divorce you after finding out she was carrying on a torrid, secret affair with your neighbor, then beg her to come back to you when she was finished with him?
Where’s your dignity?
Actually, I’m not sure what is more pathetic: The fact there are fans in Northeast Ohio willing to welcome back an athlete who not only left their franchise when it was within an eyelash of winning a championship — were it not for that athlete’s covert actions to undermine that franchise — or the fact they think there may actually be a chance of him wanting to return.
Let’s address the latter first.
When James took his talents to South Beach, he made it clear he was in search of championship glory. He didn’t want to win those championships in Cleveland, a city he despises. He wanted to win them with his buddies in the sunshine of South Florida. In case you weren’t paying attention to the news at the time, he wanted a lot of them.
“Not one. Not two. Not three ...” he announced at their smoke-filled spectacle before he ever took the floor with his partners in crime and conspiracy, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, ticking off his goal of championship rings. It was not coincidental he didn’t stop counting until he got well past “not six.”
James now has the first two titles on his wish list, and the fact Kobe Bryant has five and Michael Jordan has six, is the single greatest motivating factor driving him now. Jordan and Bryant are widely considered the greatest players of this era, and Jordan the greatest of all-time.
King Ego will not stand for that.
He already has four league MVP awards, compared to Jordan’s five and Kobe’s one. His career will not be judged by individual honors, numerous as they will be. It will be judged by his ring count.
So I ask you, my LeBron-loving friends: In what parallel universe can you possibly see your hero deciding the best way to win championships four, five, six and seven is in the city of Cleveland? Playing for one of the weakest teams in the NBA since he left in the summer of 2010?
Because the words “Cleveland” and “championship” are used together so often they just roll off the tongue so effortlessly, right?
Even if James decides to opt out of his contract after the season, it’s almost a lead-pipe cinch he re-signs with Miami, as the Heat ownership continues to make upgrades to the talent level around him, giving him a chance to make good on his eight-championship boast. If he doesn’t stay with Miami?
Let’s just say there are probably 25 NBA teams that would be closer to a championship with him on their roster than the Cavaliers are.
Don’t believe me? Take a look at the roster. Beyond Kyrie Irving, who is an All-Star but having a poor season, what is there in Cleveland to lead a superstar player like James to believe he can lift and carry this franchise to a championship? Comparing the Cavs’ roster, even with James on it, to the likes of the young, superstar-laden Clippers and Thunder, or even the Pacers, Blazers or Rockets is ridiculous.
Andrew Bynum is tremendously talented, but has talked of retirement rather than playing in severe pain on two bad knees. Dion Waiters is being shopped, and top pick Anthony Bennett might be an eighth man in the D-League.
So LeBron would want to come here ... why?
Oh, and let’s not forget the Dan Gilbert factor. Gilbert’s comic-sans tirade against James, which I applauded, would not soon be forgotten by a man with any pride whatsoever. Do you think James would want to make Gilbert his boss again?
No, LeBron James is not coming back to Cleveland. Not in this or any other lifetime.
Finally, a word on the former:
Any true Cavs’ fan with an ounce of respect for themselves and their city would never welcome back a man who could easily have won his two career championships here, if he had only chosen to do so. When the Cavs were on the brink of a being a championship team, the front office told LeBron they’d get him whatever help he needed to get to the promised land. As such, they asked him to help recruit Ray Allen or Michael Redd to be the sweet-shooting two-guard that would complement his game. James refused to lift a finger, and Allen and Redd were lost.
The Cavs ended up with Larry Hughes, and all they had to show for it was dented rims and cracked backboards.
James wouldn’t help the Cavs get what they needed to win here because he never wanted to win here. If he had won a title in Cleveland, he wouldn’t have been able to leave. He’d have to stay and defend it rather than escape to Miami with his boys, as he planned all along.
So I ask you again, subjects of King James:
Where’s your pride? Where’s your dignity? Where’s your self-respect?
I suggest you try to find it.

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About the Author

Reach the author at frantz.media@yahoo.com. Follow Bob on Twitter: @BobFrantz80.